That was fast! The iPhone Dev Team has managed to jailbreak New iPad on the day of it's release. This has to be the fastest jailbreak ever done on a new iOS device. Screenshots posted below.
The New iPad started shipping to those who had pre-ordered early, today. Apple Retail Stores in 10 countries also started selling the New iPad from 8 a.m. Within hours of getting their hands on the device, iPhone Dev Team has managed to jailbreak New iPad on iOS 5.1 firmware. As previously mentioned, this is undoubtedly the fastest jailbreak ever done on a new iOS device. Don't forget that it took nearly five months after release for the iPad 2 to be jailbroken on iOS 4.3.3 using JailbreakMe 3.0.
In developing a jailbreak for iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and the New iPad, there exists a major issue. No bootrom exploit has been discovered for these devices which are powered by A5 and the A5X processor. The bootrom exploit is a hardware based exploit, one that Apple can fix only with the release of a new product. The jailbreak released a few months back for iPad 2 and iPhone 4S on iOS 5.0 and iOS 5.0.1 was based on a userland exploit which Apple patched with iOS 5.1 firmware for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
However an interesting turn of events took place yesterday. Well known iOS hacker Stefan Esser posted pictures of his iPad 2 jailbroken on iOS 5.1. He hasn't revealed whether this jailbreak is tethered, untethered, bootrom or userland based. However his work does prove that there exists a possibility of jailbreaking iPad 2 on iOS 5.1. The iPhone Dev Team stated earlier today that Stefan was using an entirely different method, one that can prove to be helpful in trying to jailbreak New iPad. Indeed, it has!
MuscleNerd posted these screenshots a while back on his Twitter account. He says that this is just a foot in the door. A lot of work needs to be done before this jailbreak can be released to the public. Nevertheless, this is amazing news. The fact that iPhone Dev Team has been able to jailbreak New iPad so quickly, is proof enough that a release will be coming soon in the not so distant future.